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WE BELIEVE
that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite,
unchangeable Spirit perfect in holiness, wisdom,
goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity
He exists as the ONE LIVING AND TRUE GOD in three
persons of one substance; the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory.
WE BELIEVE
that God's kingdom is everlasting. From His throne,
through His Son, His eternal Word, God created,
upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly
places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth,
every living thing and mankind.
WE BELIEVE
that Satan, originally a great, good angel,
rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with
him. He was cast out of God's presence and, as a
usurper of God's rule, established a counter-kingdom
of darkness and evil on the earth.
WE BELIEVE
that God created mankind in His image, male and
female, for relationship with Himself and to govern
the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our
original parents fell from grace, bringing sin,
sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth.
Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained
access to God's good creation. Creation now
experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's
original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject
to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's
kingdom of darkness.
WE BELIEVE
that God did not abandon His rule over the earth
which He continues to uphold by His providence. In
order to bring redemption, God established covenants
which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the
covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His
people Israel, promising to deliver them from
bondage of sin and Satan and to bless all the
nations through them.
WE BELIEVE
that as King, God later redeemed His people by His
mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established
His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect
will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law's
purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us
conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work
of God's Spirit it convicts us of our sin and God's
righteous judgment against us and brings us to
Christ alone for salvation.
WE BELIEVE
that when Israel rejected God's rule over her as
King, God established the monarchy in Israel and
made an unconditional covenant with David, promising
that his heir would restore God's kingdom reign over
His people as Messiah forever.
WE BELIEVE
that in the fullness of time, God honored His
covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of
salvation by sending His only Son, Jesus, into the
world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully man in one
person, He is humanity as God intended us to be.
Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by
the Holy Spirit inaugurating God's kingdom reign on
earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting
temptation, preaching the good news of salvation,
healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the
dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted
God's people as His Church to be the instrument of
His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world.
Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day,
fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to
Abraham.
WE BELIEVE
that in His sinless, perfect life, Jesus met the
demands of the law and in His atoning death on the
cross. He took God's judgment for sin which we
deserve as law-breakers. By his death on the cross.
He also disarmed the demonic powers.
WE BELIEVE
that the covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus'
birth from David's house, His Messianic ministry,
His glorious resurrection from the dead, his ascent
into heaven and His present rule at the right hand
of the Father. As God's Son and David's heir, He is
the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God's reign
throughout every generation and throughout the whole
earth today.
WE BELIEVE
that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at
Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the
Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit
to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling
presence of God to us for spiritual worship,
personal sanctification, building up the Church,
gifting us for ministry, and driving back the
kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world
through bearing the word of Jesus and doing the
works of Jesus.
WE BELIEVE
that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in
Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper,
Teacher and Guide.
WE BELIEVE
in the filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit
often a conscious experience, for ministry today.
WE BELIEVE
in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the
exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit.
We practice the laying on of hands for the
empowering of the Spirit for healing and for
recognition and empowering of those whom God has
ordained to lead and serve the Church.
WE BELIEVE
that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of
Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in
the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six
books of the Old and New Testaments as our final,
absolute authority, the only infallible rule of
faith and practice.
WE BELIEVE
that the whole world is under the domination of
Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and
choice. All people, therefore, are under God's just
judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of
Jesus and the Kingdom of God and the work of the
Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts, and
sanctifies through Jesus by the Spirit all who
repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior. By this they are released from
Satan's domain and enter into God's kingdom reign.
WE BELIEVE
in one holy, universal Church. All who repent of
their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are
regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living
Body of Christ of which He is the Head and all are
members.
WE BELIEVE
that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the
Church: Water Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Both
are available to all believers.
WE BELIEVE
that God's Kingdom has come in to ministry of our
Lord Jesus Christ that it continues to come in the
ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that
it will be consummated in the glorious, visible and
triumphant appearing of Christ - His return to the
earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He
will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all
of his minions and works, the resurrection of the
dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of
the righteous and eternal conscious punishment of
the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His
Kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in
the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His
mighty power in which righteousness dwells and in
which He will forever be worshipped. |